Extract: Your memories of the 2014 independence referendum

MY family spent the whole day in Largs with the Yes Largs team, waiting for Nicola Sturgeon’s visit. My wife was face-painting Saltires and Yes on kids and adults alike. When Nicola arrived I got a great photo of her with my daughter Toni. It was such great day.

Rob Thomson

THE sign on our house that we put up in 2014 caused a lot of conversation in the two local pubs, as well as a steady stream of affirmatory toots from supporters as they drove into our village. The sign is stored away safely, ready for next time!

SOME of my happiest campaigning memories were spent at Portobello beach with my Edinburgh Women For Independence (WFI) pals. The guys from East Edinburgh Yes always joined us and even put up the gazebo, which, despite being independent women, we were very appreciative of! We also had a fab day “at the bingo”, signing up new voters & giving out Yes bingo dabbers all over Edinburgh on WFI National campaign day. Such fun engaging with (mostly) older women.

Gordon Ferrie

THROUGHOUT the summer of 2014, the Yes Moffat band of independence supporters gained in confidence and enthusiasm to take on the epicentre of Unionism in Dumfries and Galloway.

Every morning I would drive my motor home covered in flags and banners to the Devil’s Beef Tub to ensure that visitors to Moffat would be welcomed by our message of hope. This was followed up by checking that the largest Yes banner in the south-west was still in place near the M74 despite efforts to vandalise it. Then it was on to the daily Yes stall to meet friends, speak to supporters and keep up admirable levels of humour and courtesy to those of other opinions.

The mood was buoyant and optimistic and the impossible seemed within touching distance. On the evening of the referendum I left Moffat Town Hall where Yes supporters were having an impromptu folk concert and headed to gather outside the Parliament hoping for independence. The rest is history and the tears flowed when I returned to Moffat, passing the local cemetery and hearing the drones of Amazing Grace ... we had failed to seize the day. Next morning I woke up in Scotland, feeling Scottish, proud to be Scottish. and ready to start again ...

Liz Lowrey, Abernethy

PRIOR to the start of the campaign for Scotland’s independence I wasn’t sure which way I would vote. I got married in April 2014 and my husband Malcolm had been an independence and SNP member all his life. Through reading and research I quickly realised that I was 100% in support of independence. Since then I have joined the SNP and my local Yes group and take every opportunity with friends family and on social media to spread the word that independence is normal.

Charles Maitland, Westhill

MY wife and I were walking along the prom at Aberdeen beach on the Sunday after the referendum when we saw that someone had created a thistle on the sand with the words “Free Scotland”. The image made me quite emotional. Bearing in mind the closeness of the result, I posted it on my Facebook page with the single word: “Inevitable”!

Angie Weddell, Edinburgh

ONE of the best marches I went on was the eve of the 2014 referendum. Our community all turned out and we were led by a piper, marching through our streets, young and not so young full of hope for a better future for everyone. I’d spoken to friends, family and neighbours about the benefits of independence. Some were scared and wouldn’t budge, others came around, but now the appetite is like a fever.

Isabelle Smith

AS a supporter of independence for 70 years, the highlight of 2014 was the polling station in Leith on the morning of the vote. I was covering the morning session there when several cars drove up and members of the press arrived with all the paraphernalia of importance.The word had got out that my son and granddaughter from the US had come to assist in the cause as a gesture in memory of their father and grandfather, my husband Jack, who had died before he saw this day. The story went viral in the US and around the world. The photo I’ve included was published in the Jerusalem press. My niece Lynn completes the four.

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